Guys, I must say the truth here, and I mean a full and final conclusion on both games, and believe me that I'm not a fan of any of the 2 games, I just keep looking for a good soccer simulation and realism.
I've played FIFA 06 and PES 5 for over 6 months now, I play FIFA 06 at my house, and when I'm at my friends' houses I play PES 5 (they don't like FIFA in general). Don't argue with me and say some bla stuff on how it's not possible and stuff, I do play both games and I have a 100% perfect view on both of them, and my view got many of my friends shift to the one I thought was better.
See, PES 5 is a great game, but as Beery mentioned it does feel "Arcade" like, in fact very arcade-ish. When I look at my friends and at my self playing PES, all what they shout and think about is to score a goal, and more goals; Even if they change the formation and strategies, they do that only because they read about it somewhere, in other words changing formation and strategies in PES is just like a cheat code, hens the word "Arcade" like, in arcade games you do some exact moves and you'll 90% of the time get the same actions, the same applies to PES 5, for example, when you commit a free kick on particular way, you will always, an I mean ALWAYS (99% of the time) get what you want, I have some of my friends who score 3 or 4 goals in one match just by following some steps on a free kick then scoring a goal.
The good thing about this system of arcade-like is that it has a big fan base; The matches are fast, exact and have a game feel, I repeat "Game Feel".
In the other hand, FIFA 06 perfectly simulates the real world soccer action, either by sound effects graphical effects or with realism of game style. When my friends come to my house and try to play FIFA 06 the first thing they say is "The game is too slow", which is the first response that I get from any PES gamer, and why is that? Because PES gamers got so used to fast "Arcade like" games on PES to the point that anything slower than the PES games seems extremely slow, but when we come to real talk, FIFA 06 has the closest game play speed to the real world, in fact in FIFA World Cup 2006, the speed has been modified to the best of what it can be ever.
I've done some tests on how long dose the ball fly and how the ball falls down in both games, compared both games to real soccer matches recorded on the internet, and the results are way to far from each other; FIFA beats PES by flying colors! Don't believe me? do the tests by your self.
Even the players' movements in FIFA are slowed down to a point where you can think while play instead of just playing pre-thought actions. In PES I use to suffer from changing the Formations and Strategies, because whenever I try something realistic and logical, it gets harder to win against my friends, and of course my friends always do the same formation plans and win most of the time against me. I wonder why?? Funny enough, one of my is like the best PES player in the hood, and for some reason he always uses the same formation set and strategies whatever was the team! e of course always wins! I mean come on, the same formation for Brazil and England??!!! Unrealistic.
In the old days, FIFA was crappy for sure, but now, and ESPECIALLY in FIFA World Cup 2006, I can totally say that "EA Sports is doing a Marvelous job in simulating the soccer game", I mean Player actions, ball physics, graphics, sounds, commentary everything is so perfected with the latest technology out there. I'm so serious and sure about what I'm saying here, and I want from the PES fans to at least try the FIFA game for 1 week, don't try it for one game and say "oh slow", no, play it for one week and I can assure you that you are going to get "Addicted" to it; try out the FIFA World Cup 2006... Unless if you are looking for Arcade-like games, then I prefer for you to keep playing PES.
PES was for 3 years in a row my favourite game ever, seriously. But I've reached to a point where I said "Man, I should grow up a little and start looking for more real world simulation", and in EA FIFA I found the answer, and my god what an answer. But that doesn't mean at all that I'm not playing PES forever, I still do like the Arcade feeling of PES, where I can play fast games with my friends without the need to think a lot, just start the console, even keep the formation as it is and have fun, and when I'm at home alone and need a cool late night strategic game, I head to my PC or Xbox360 and continue a tournament that I've started from a week or so.
The FIFA vs. PES argument will never end, due to the miss-thinking on how both games work, but I want everybody in here to rethink what I've said, that PES is more arcade, and FIFA is more simulation. Another example is the game flight simulator, Anyone who saw me playing it was like "Man, Boring", but that's because it's slow and more realistic, which most gamers don't prefer, instead they'll love flight games such as Ace Combat where it has some realistic feeling, but more arcade like, you do some moves hit some buttons and the game is done.
Please click on the following link to view my personal review on FIFA World Cup 2006:
http://www.soccergaming.com/db/reviews/show.php?RID=57
Thank you for reading!
Peace,
Saad R. (Biggy)
breakaways every time down its horrible!
